Problematising Water

An Experiment on the Edges of Interdisciplinarity

Nicole Vitellone

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2026
• Topic: Social Sciences
• eBook ISBN:
  9781040606490
• Subtopic: Global Warming & Climate Change
• Index: Social Sciences

Problematising Water: An Experiment on the Edges of Interdisciplinarity is a manifestation of thinking with water across a range of disciplines including human geography, sociology, anthropology, science and technology studies, and ethnomethodology.
In this book, Vitellone reveals the alliances between Michel Foucault's concept of problematisation and a new methodological approach for water- focused research, as seen through her study of London's #OneLess refill water fountain pilot, an intervention to reduce plastic bottled water. Situating the refill water fountain as a problematic space for collaborating with marine scientists, marine conservationists, systems change practitioners, and publics engaged in the making and doing of refill, the book discusses how Foucault's notion of problematisation forces a re- thinking of knowledge making practices in environmental research on water. It also synthesises a large body of literature by key thinkers, including Bruno Latour, Isabelle Stengers, Andrea Ballestero, Astrida Neimanis, Noortge Marres, Gay Hawkins, Andrew Barry, Mike Michael, and others, and links to current debates across a variety of disciplines.
Problematising Water: An Experiment on the Edges of Interdisciplinarity is a timely and provocative contribution to debates around the climate crisis and environmental interventions and the role that different research methods and objects play within them. It will be of value to science and technology scholars, social scientists, natural scientists, and academics interested in the environmental humanities.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction : How to think, research, and write with water – a problematological turn
• 1 Thinking problematically with the water fountain
• 2 Probing problematisation in the plastics and climate crises
• 3 Loitering as a method of interdisciplinary research
• 4 Sociography of a curious object
• 5 Using ethnomethodology to make sense of the #OneLess refill water fountain pilot
• Index